sweetwater, tx

[cabforward]

is, or was, sweetwater a big r.r. junction? especially in the '50s, i remember cars labeled 'when empty, return to agent, sweetwater'..
i read that the town's water came from 'bitter lake', or close to it.. any info.?

[edblysard]

Sweetwater, in Taylor County, appox. 100 miles west of Abilene, which was and still is a major junction. Water supply from Sweetwater Lake, fed by the Brazos River. Will find out about the cars, what type? Open gons, hoppers? I know Georgetown RR is a limestone quarry, with crushed stone a major product. They to, mark their cars return to agent, georgetown rr.
Will research, and answer asap.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[edblysard]

Besides laying claim to haveing the "Worlds Biggest Rattlesnake Round Up", Sweetwater has a few major industries.
Rolling Plains Co-Op, a cotton compress, employees 97,
United Gypsum, makes wallboard, (sheetrock) with 257 employees.
There is Lone Star Industries, makes cement,
Sweetwater Ready Mix, also make cement, and last but not least, Georgia Pacific, makers of wallboard also.
So it looks like your major shippers would be the wallboard makers, in box cars, and the two cement plants, in covered two and three bay hoppers.
The City's web page has, oddly, a transit timetable for shipping by truck or rail.
Still looking,
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[cabforward]

thanks for the run-down.. you put everything in except
.. which r.rs. have the right-of-way? i can guess: up, bnsf.. is there another r.r. with 1,000+ miles of mainline west of the mississippi?

before these guys ran everybody else out-of-town, which lines served there? i know a lot of r.rs. that operated in tx, but i dont know if they served sweetwater..

[cabforward]

thanks for the run-down.. you put everything in except
.. which r.rs. have the right-of-way? i can guess: up, bnsf.. is there another r.r. with 1,000+ miles of mainline west of the mississippi?

before these guys ran everybody else out-of-town, which lines served there? i know a lot of r.rs. that operated in tx, but i dont know if they served sweetwater..

[Anonymous]

ATSF & MP